Wonderful castles of Sintra and Cabo da Roca

The wonderful castles of Sintra. Yes, it is the plural. Indeed, Sintra has more than the famous Pena Palace. And they are all worth the visit. That’s why I am going to tell you about them. The first two, I saw on a trip with Erasmus. We had our own bus going to Sintra. Sintra is a small, medieval village in the big national park of Sintra and Cascais. There, you have the palace of Sintra and some other beautiful, old houses, markets and the famous “travesseiros de Sintra”, which means pillows of Sintra. It is the typical sweet – almost every town in Portugal has its own sweet -, which is made from filou and apples. Very delicious! We had a stroll through the city centre and then, the bus brought us in the mountain, taking some winding narrow roads with high walls. Nothing, where I would want to drive. But the vegetation is very thick and looks like in a fairy tale. The Sintra, Cascais region is very well known in Portugal, for its castles, the region of the rich people and the Cabo da Roca, which I will also talk about.

Castelos dos Mouros

The Castelo dos Mouros, so the castle of the Moorish, lies on one of the mountains and is mostly the stone wall. To get there, you walk through a forest and on the way already find things from a long ago past, like old buildings, wells and food storage. The castle is big and you can walk all around it on the walls. From there, you also have a good view on the town of Sintra, its castle, the Quinta da Regaleira, the higher located Pena Palace and even the bridge of the 25thof April and Lisbon in the far. This day, they also had an Arab market, with food, jewels, henna tattoos and Arab music. The ambience was really nice and we walked in sunshine around the castle. There was no much inside, just some storage cells.

Palácio de Monserrate

We then continued to the Palace of Monserrate. It was a bit further away and also could not be seen from the castle before, nor really good from the street. It is a small, but beautiful palace. The rooms are mostly round and the colours are a warm orange and yellow. The long corridors had many statures and in the middle room there was even a fountain. One big room with big windows was prepared for a wedding later that day. But the bigger attraction was actually the garden. It has a huge garden with different parts. First, we just sat on the meadow on the hill and enjoyed the sun. Afterwards, we had a stroll through the garden, through its forest, the flower fields with many ponds and winding paths. We found some small, old temples, arches and bridges. It is a wonderful garden, but probably even nicer in summer or spring, when more of the plants are flowering. At this time of the year, some parts had already lost their leaves and everything was dry. In the evening, we went to the Cabo da Roca on our way back.

Two castles per day is reasonable. After some time, you need a change and you don’t appreciate so much beauty, if you see it all at once. And furthermore, you don’t have the time to visit them relaxed. The next time, I went in January with a group of friends. We took a group tour and had our private driver to drive us around and give explanations. Firstly, we saw again Sintra and ate the pillows – for my friends, who have not been here before. Then, we went to see one of the other castles, or actually it is not a castle.

Quinta da Regaleira

The Quinta da Regaleira is a big property with a huge garden. It had been the beautiful building that I had seen the last time from the castelo dos mouros. The main attraction here is truly the garden. We got a map to not get lost and then started to explore. It is just amazing, like in a fairy tale! Everything of a dark green and with old, enchanted walls. We saw some chapels and other smaller buildings. Then we entered in a cave, where we followed the lights on the floor. After some time, we arrived at an opening, from where you had a view over the small pond, completely overgrown with some green plants. We had been warned beforehand to not step on it. Many people think it is grass and fall into it. But, in my opinion, you could still see that it is a pond. Over the pond led, on one side, some stones, and on the other, a beautiful bridge. Of course, we went everywhere to see everything. When we continued in the cave, we arrived at a well, where we could look from down up. It was overgrown with moss and pretty humid. Later, we entered another well, where we walked inside up. The wells are very famous and shown on most pictures on the internet, when you search about Sintra. We mounted some towers and strolled around the garden, it was just perfect. We also entered the small building, which was as well beautiful, but not as impressive as its gardens. We then continued in our car and the guide drove us through the woods. He shortly stopped at the entrance of the Monserrate Palace to show it to my friends from the outside and then drove us to a small house, where the fairy tale of Hänsel and Gretel was inspired. Originally, it had been a Portuguese fairy tale and the brothers Grimm just adapted it. He also told us that this is the enchanted wood and that was also what I already had thought before. We passed under a bridge with a wall that locked it. The story about this is that a man and a woman wanted to marry. She said she will only marry him, if her mother can live with them. So, he build them a house and another one for her mother, which he joined with a bridge, but when they married he built a wall in front of the bridge, so that she couldn’t visit any more.

Palácio de Pena

The Pena Palace is the most known of all of them, but until now, I haven’t been interested in visiting it. Today, we went together and when we arrived our guide told us that the architect of this castle was the father of the architect of Schloss Neuschwanstein in Germany and that they had similarities. I already had seen the castle from far and on pictures and didn’t believe it. But, when we arrived there, I saw indeed some similarities – I know Neuschwanstein pretty well, as I live close to it. The one here in Portugal is more colourful and has more round parts. Mostly the entrance with the small towers looks like our castle in Germany. But that’s already it. This one here, is of a dark red, bright yellow and with Azulejos. It is located on the hill top and has huge garden around it. Some of the towers look from its colour and shape like a Playmobil caslte. We entered the big castle and saw all the rooms, which were pretty much like other castles. Honestly, from the inside, I have already forgotten most of it. The outside is much more impressive. Normally, you should visit the garden as well, but it is huge, we didn’t have time and it was January, so almost nothing grows at that time of the year.

Cabo da Roca

As last point of the day tour, we went to the Cabo da Roca, which is the most eastern point of Europe. I have already been here with the Erasmus, it is nothing special, just about saying you have been there. It is so windy, always cold and you can see the sea. There is a cross and on one monument, you can read the words of Camoes: “ aqui a terra acaba e o mar começa”, here ends the land and the sea begins. From the shape and the view, it reminded me of the Cape Reinga in New Zealand, the most northern point of the North Island with an interesting story (you can read about that in my New Zealand blog). Camoes is the most famous poet of Portugal and is to be compared with Shakespeare and Goethe. You have to have heard about him at least once in your life. We took some pictures to show everyone we have been at the most eastern point of Europe and watched the sun go down over the sea. It was a nice ending for that day. And on our way home, we only stopped in Cascais to eat something.

Cascais

Cascais is a beautiful city – what else shall I say, I work here – at the Portuguese coast. It is close to Lisbon and some very beautiful beaches. It also has a small beach and port on its own and surely one of the most beautiful libraries. It looks like a small castle on small rocks with its own beach, but only at low tide. Here, live the wealthier people and you notice that from their cars and houses, or I should say villas. A nice city to go for a walk along the coast and watch other people, what I really like to do.

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